


Best Laid Plans are Oft in Vain

by OhNoMyBreadsticks



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Holidays, Insecurity, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 13:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22716631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhNoMyBreadsticks/pseuds/OhNoMyBreadsticks
Summary: Clyde may be new to this whole 'boyfriend' thing, but he's determined to make his first Valentines Day with Elijah a huge success. Now, if only the world would stop conspiring against him...
Relationships: CyberLife Tower Connor | RK800-60/Elijah Kamski
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13
Collections: Eli and Clyde - extra works !, Hankcon and Other Ships Valentines Exchange





	Best Laid Plans are Oft in Vain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MinasTheFaun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinasTheFaun/gifts).



> This was written for the Hankcon and Other Ships Valentines Exchange! I was lucky enough to get my dear friend Minas as my giftee <3 I know he likes some soft angst with a happy ending, so I may have beaten up Clyde a lil bit for this one lmao. I hope you enjoy it!!! <3 <3 
> 
> Clyde as Connor60's name comes from Minas' wonderful fic [Face to Face](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17224106/chapters/40502579)
> 
> My friend and beta extraordinaire [thislittlekumquat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thislittlekumquat/pseuds/thislittlekumquat) did a fantastic job as usual with this work!! <3

Valentine’s Day wasn’t supposed to go like this, Clyde was fairly sure. Well, make that somewhat sure. It wasn’t like he was some great expert on the subject of Valentine’s Day, or on human holidays at all for that matter. He had only been ‘alive’ for about a year, and he had only had a human boyfriend for half of that. Which was honestly the only reason he had started caring about holidays in the first place. As an android, holidays had no real appeal, but he didn’t want to drag Elijah down and deprive him of any fun experiences. Besides, human holidays were apparently mostly just excuses to spend time together and do ritualistic eating together. Which Clyde couldn’t quite enjoy all of, but he did like making sure that his boyfriend got enough to eat.

So when Valentine’s Day crested the hill of ‘future events coming up’, Clyde had begun the planning process. He did research on his down time - watched romantic comedy films, read blog posts, scrolled through social media lists - and was honestly pretty overwhelmed. There was a lot to this one, apparently. It was way more complicated than New Years had been. But the core of the holiday seemed to be that you were supposed to pamper your significant other with lots of specific gifts, and then spend a romantic evening together. With candles and rose petals, although Clyde wasn’t so sure about the fire safety of that idea. Maybe he would get some of those LED candles instead of real ones.

Despite the inherent silliness of human holidays, Clyde found himself a little excited when the fourteenth finally rolled around. Elijah absolutely worked too hard, and he deserved a little time off to splurge and relax. Especially if that time was spent with his loving boyfriend, who had done an amazing job setting up a perfect day for them. Maybe, that tiny needy part of his systems suggested, maybe he would get some praise for it. Have Elijah smile that wonderful smile at him and tell him how lucky he was to have a caring partner like Clyde. Not like he needed the confirmation.  _ He  _ knew they were lucky to have each other. It was just something he could… you know, hope for.

The morning of Valentine’s day started out less than ideal, Clyde was willing to admit. He had planned to slip a card into Elijah’s lunchbox before he left for the office, but the idiot had forgotten to take his lunch entirely. Some early morning stakeholders’ meeting had Elijah leaving their shared home far earlier than Clyde, and when he got to the kitchen he noticed the forgotten lunchbox (and thus, the forgotten gift). 

Texting Elijah was even less helpful, as his response was just a ‘sorry babe, gonna skip lunch today anyways’. Frustrated, Clyde slipped the little red envelope out of the lunchbox and stashed it away in the living room. It wasn’t like he could just show up and give it to Elijah at work; no, that would be far too obvious.

Not to be deterred, Clyde got dressed for work and headed into the office. There were still his other plans, and he was sure those would be enough to win out the day. Some of that confidence, unfortunately, drained away as soon as Clyde set foot inside the lobby of the Cyberlife tower. There was a bustle of staff around the main desk, some of the janitors assisting the secretaries as they bundled items away into big trash bags. Clyde approached the scene with an already sinking sense of dread to confirm that, yes, the items being bagged up were bouquets and gift baskets and boxes of chocolates. Apparently his hesitation at the edge of the scene was enough to draw the attention of one of the secretaries, who turned to him with a kind smile.

“It’s a lot, isn’t it?” she commented, gesturing at the pile. Clyde nodded mutely, and she seemed to take pity on him, explaining, “Every year there are a bunch of weird fans that send stuff to people in the corporation. Mr. Kamski eventually banned any kind of gifts, so we just bag them all up when they arrive and donate them to local shelters. Nice, right?” Another nod from Clyde, and the woman began to lose interest in chatting. She shot him one more pity smile and then turned back to her work, clearly unnerved by his total lack of reaction. But Clyde was too caught up in his own feelings to notice, turning and walking to the elevator mostly on autopilot.

Disappointment and embarrassment were at war in his systems, and it honestly wasn’t clear which one would be better for him as a victor. On the one hand, he was imagining all the money and time he had spent deciding on the perfect bouquet to order and have delivered, all wasted. Two for two on failed Valentine’s gifts. But on the other hand, would Elijah have been embarrassed to receive such a bland and generic gift? Apparently he (or the office, Clyde had to remind himself) got so many bouquets and the like that he had banned them. Clyde squirmed as the elevator rose up through the building, suddenly feeling terribly uncomfortable in his nice shirt and tie. What if this was all a mistake, and Elijah would be totally turned off by his paltry cheesy offerings?

Hiding his nerves under a carefully constructed blank expression, Clyde stepped out of the elevator and got to work. Elijah was busy in his office, but still looked up and gave his boyfriend a little wave a smile. And that was enough, really, enough to bolster Clyde to get through the rest of the workday. He would be fine, he still had his dinner plans to fall back on, and that was, according to the internet and pop culture, the most important part of Valentine’s Day. After work he would sweep Elijah off to the house to change, and then they’d take one of the self driving cars to the restaurant. Perfect romantic evening, perfect boyfriend award for Clyde. 

That perfect imagined future lasted for about five hours, until just after lunch when Clyde suddenly received an urgent call from the restaurant he had booked into. It sounded like the call was coming from a war zone, all frantic preparations happening in the kitchen. The worried sounding man on the other side was babbling something about overbookings, and offering all sorts of recompense. But Clyde could barely hear him over the disappointment ringing through his systems. He knew he should be angry, should probably start shouting at the man for ruining his day even more than it already was. And yet he couldn’t even muster the energy to properly answer, mumbling something incoherent and terminating the call.

It felt like Clyde’s batteries had been completely drained, although he knew that wasn’t how the technology worked at all. He wasn’t in a very rational mood though, and that stung even more. He hated feeling like this, hated the way his emotions crashed and broke against him without his having any say over it. Deviancy was a terrible curse, he thought miserably, for a fuckup of an android like him. He was doomed to constantly make himself feel bad. Once the spiral started it was almost impossible to break out of, and Clyde spent the rest of his workday just blindly going from task to task. He took his mandatory break at noon, but Elijah was in another meeting so it wasn’t like he could go and sit with him. Instead he just sat at his desk and tried not to replay a medley of all his greatest failures as a boyfriend in his head.

This was definitely not how Valentine’s Day was supposed to go, Clyde thought to himself as someone dropped off extra work at his desk, but the universe seemed intent on proving him wrong. He wasn’t even going to get to go home on time at this rate, and he sent a text to Elijah for him to go on without him. Maybe if he just pretended he didn’t know what day it was, his boyfriend wouldn’t realize how incompetent he was. By the time he finished the paperwork it was dark outside, and Clyde had decided that was going to be his strategy. Pretend he was tired from work, let Elijah fuss over him for a few moments, then excuse himself to bed early. Then wake up the next day and pretend this had never happened. He liked that plan. That was a plan that made him feel safe.

The ride home was uneventful, and Clyde had pretty much gotten his emotions under control by the time he arrived at home. He had even schooled his face back into an appropriately bland expression, although his spinning amber LED wasn’t going to stop any time soon. Oh well, he’d blame that on work stress. Stepping into the house, Clyde was surprised to find the lights off. A sudden flash of panic shot through him at the thought that Elijah hadn’t come home after all. But no, there was noise and dim light filtering out from the kitchen down the hall. Cautiously, Clyde toed off his shoes and shuffled closer, trying to be stealthy in case it  _ was _ some kind of intruder or spy. 

Instead, what greeted him was like something out of a movie. The kitchen and dining room were completely covered in flickering candles, the only real light coming from above the stove. Elijah was sitting and lounging in one of the kitchen chairs, hair pulled back into a messy bun and an apron covering his work clothes. The flickering low light made his eyes shine a gorgeous blue. As Clyde took in the space he felt a strange pull in his chest, some emotion welling up without his permission yet again. Before he could speak and ask any questions though, Elijah was up on his feet and giving him a beaming grin.

“Welcome home! I hope you don’t mind that I made us our own little Valentine’s surprise,” Elijah explained, hand sweeping out to gesture at the whole candle setup. There were even little rose petals strewn about on the kitchen table, dark red pops of color visible to the android’s advanced visual sensors. 

“Since you can’t exactly enjoy a restaurant meal I thought we could cook together instead. At least that way I get to share some part of the evening with you,” Elijah continued, his confident grin softening into something much more fond and hopeful. Something that belied just how nervous he was about this whole plan, how much he must have done his own planning and hard work to get this moment ready.

Somehow that was the thought that tipped Clyde over the edge - that they had both been working so hard to do something nice for each other - and suddenly there were tears just absolutely pouring down his face. Uncontrollable sobs bubbled up, and the shame of suddenly bursting into tears just made it worse. Clyde curled up into himself, arms crossed as his shoulders shook, and then there were warm arms circling him, and a somewhat frantic heartbeat against his ear as Elijah pulled him close. They stood like that until Clyde cried himself out, neither man saying anything. Elijah simply let out the occasional low soothing hum as he squeezed his boyfriend a little closer.

Eventually, once Clyde could speak, he raised his head a little and it all came pouring out of him. The whole day’s worth of misfortunes were laid at Elijah’s feet, every single plan gone wrong and attempt at being kind foiled by bad luck. To Clyde’s eternal surprise, instead of laughing or letting out a disappointed sigh, Elijah cupped his face in both hands and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“Oh darling, I’m so sorry. That sounds like a miserable fucking day. And then I went and put extra work on your desk on top of it all,” Elijah murmured, looking guilty now. 

Clyde gaped at him, eventually spluttering out, “Wait, that was you? You gave me extra work that made me late??” 

Elijah nodded, admitting sheepishly, “I needed time to come home and set up the whole surprise, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal to delay you just a bit… But I didn’t know everything that had already happened.” 

Clyde sighed himself then, a cooling breath huffing out from between his lips. Leaning his face into Elijah’s gentle touch, he said softly, “I forgive you.”

A few gentle kisses were enough to have Clyde finally calmed down, his thirium pump regulator returning to its normal rhythm. His LED even managed to return to a placid blue as he allowed himself to focus on the loving nature of Elijah’s gesture. The way he had considered the fact that his android boyfriend wouldn’t be able to eat a fancy restaurant, so instead he had chosen to stay in for the night. They both knew that Clyde liked anything that he and Elijah could do together, especially if it was cooking a nice meal for his human to enjoy. That was even more satisfying. 

They finally broke apart from their embrace, but Clyde stuck close to Elijah’s side the whole evening. The simple brush of shoulders and fingers against each other was enough to reassure him that everything was really going to be okay. And in the end, Valentine’s Day was just as special as any other day that they got to spend together. Watching Elijah sigh happily as he enjoyed the meal they had prepared together. Laughing as Clyde finally realized the candles were all LED and shared his own worries about the real kind. Feeling the warm weight of Elijah’s smile as he opened the cheesy hallmark Valentine and read Clyde’s attempt at poetry.

Perhaps this was how Valentine’s Day was supposed to go after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did make sure to check out Minas' work, he does an incredible job with these two sad bois C:
> 
> As always, I cherish any and all kudos and comments <3 I’m available on [tumblr](https://ohnomybreadsticks.tumblr.com/) if you ever feel like chatting or reading some of my lil drabbles, I’d love to see you there!


End file.
